Must-Reads
Six Blue Cross Blue Shield divisions are suing CVS Health over price-fixing generic drugs.
- The TL;DR summary: CVS allegedly lied to BCBS about how much they were charging for generic drugs. As a result, they claim that CVS way overcharged BCBS for those drugs. Read the full lawsuit here.
The White House is cutting ties with the World Health Organization, citing favoritism toward China.
A report published by CB insights took a dive into how Big Tech is entering healthcare. Download it here.
A slew of canceled hospital deals were announced this week.
- In Michigan/Ohio, Beaumont and Summa Health called off their $6.1 billion merger. Then in Chicago, four safety net hospitals in Chicago called off a $1.1 billion combination. And finally, here's a summary of 10 other hospital deals canceled in the past couple of months.
Policy and Politics.
- CMS is capping out of pocket insulin costs at $35 per month, but it's not as rosy sounding as you might think.
- In other interesting news, CMS continues to expand telehealth coverage, easing telemedicine access to Medicare Advantage members living in more rural areas. Changes like these make me think that telehealth might have the best use-case in rural areas where physician coverage is much lower.
- As far as the election goes, Trump and Biden appear to be taking opposing views on the coronavirus (WSJ paywall). We'll see who it pays off for!
- House Democrats are investigating HHS. Specifically, they're questioning the department's methods of distributing the relief funding for providers.
- Get an in-depth summary of all the legal action on Capitol Hill from JD Supra here.
Coronavirus latest.
- 1,839,698 infected; 106,262 deaths in the U.S. (View the trend)
- 6,166,946 infected; 372,035 deaths globally. (View more data)
Other 'Rona stories.
- From the NY Times: Here's what we've learned so far 6 months into the coronavirus.
- Almost one third of all U.S. deaths came from nursing homes.
- Firms like CVS, Cigna, Encompass, and DaVita are returning their stimulus funds. They either don't need it, or don't want the strings attached to it.
- Speaking of CVS, the retail drug / insurance giant is testing out self-driving prescription delivery.
- The CDC recommended broad changes this week to how U.S. offices should operate during the pandemic.
- Antibody tests are creating confusion and misrepresentation of data instead of being a helpful solution to the pandemic.
- The protests couldn't have come at a worse time from the pandemic perspective - they might have a big impact on controlling the coronavirus spread.
Interesting resources.
- Strata's national patient and procedure volume tracker analyzes weekly changes in hospital and outpatient volumes. The report is a great insight into how patient volumes have been affected nationwide.
Things to skim.
Biz Hits
- A deep dive into how much for-profit hospitals are getting in bailout funds.
- Healthcare CEO pay outstrips infectious disease research, according to Axios.
State Hits
- Oklahoma no longer has the funds to expand Medicaid - as a result, the state withdrew its planned expansion.
- Molina, Centene are the biggest exchange winners in Kentucky's Medicaid awards.
Other Hits
- “This Is a Time for Mourning”: Hospital Chaplaincy in the Age of Coronavirus (The Ringer)
- Healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente is considering building a private wireless LTE network
- Is police brutality a public health issue?
Thought-Provoking Editorials
- How fitness will change forever. (The Atlantic)
- The virus could cost states billions of dollars. (NY Times)
- The protest that ended social distancing (WSJ)
- Cutting ties with the WHO creates a scientific and leadership vacuum. (Stat)
My favorite reads from this week:
Thanks for reading - you can find my past healthcare weekly news summaries here.
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